


Find A Way

by translevi



Category: Bully (Video Games)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gary Isn't Okay, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Polyamory, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, trans jimmy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 07:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13025838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/translevi/pseuds/translevi
Summary: He doesn’t think about it until later, until the sounds of the fire brigade and the ambulance have whirled away into nothingness, leaving only a quiet backdrop of silence that once used to be occupied by the bustling sound of the academy. At work, or at play, it was never quiet at Bullworth. Until the day it was - until today.





	Find A Way

**Author's Note:**

> title is from a song of the same name "Find A Way - Safetysuit" and it's absolutely something i'd recommend listening to in regards to these three

He doesn’t think about it until later, until the sounds of the fire brigade and the ambulance have whirled away into nothingness, leaving only a quiet backdrop of silence that once used to be occupied by the bustling sound of the academy. At work, or at play, it was never quiet at Bullworth. Until the day it was - until today.

It’s wrong, Jimmy thinks, staring down the street, just outside the main entrance to schoolground, staring after the long-since gone lights of the ambulance, carting away his friend-turned-enemy inside. He wants him to be okay.

Despite it all.

Zoe’s footsteps sound behind him, slowly getting closer until she’s there, at his side. To the right, where Gary used to be. Petey takes his spot on the left, footsteps quieter, harder to hear until he’s right there. His spot stays the same, but Zoe where Gary used to be just feels  _ wrong _ .

_ “You would have, if I’d given you the chance.” _

His words, Gary’s words, echoed not just in the sky amongst them, but in his conscious. He knows so little about him, knew him for so little before everything had gone to hell. Petey knows more, but they knew separate pieces. Gary never gives you all of him, just enough to know what version of him he wants you to know. Never enough to hurt him.

He landed on him. 

He tackled him off the roof, busted through scaffolding, landed on him, and beat the hell out of him before the 2nd gave way under their weight and they fell through the skylight. And then he landed on him again -  _ kicked him _ . He dragged him down a flight of stairs by his leg.

He should have waited, should have learned to  _ wait. _

He knows words like that, has been knocked around by his “step-dads” too many times to count, his mother--

Zoe and Petey slowly pull him back, Petey following Zoe’s lead and beckoning the new King back to his domain; broken and burned, but his nonetheless. The perfect land for someone like him.

Jimmy wishes he knew more about Gary, enough to know who had hurt him so badly in the past that he feared the future.

But he doesn’t, and now it’s too late.

The school slowly comes back under his control, the students broken and battered and  _ shunned _ . He can’t stop a bull when it starts to rage, but god knows he can outrun it.

The cliques come back together and rejoin at his side. The nerds come first, scared and unsure what to do. Brain over brawn, Gary over Jimmy, but Jimmy won, so what does that mean?

The greasers join his side next, puffed up collars and slicked back hair, talking to him about bikes and whatever races or tricks they had been doing. Jimmy allows it, talks back even. Shop is one of his favorite classes after all.

Lola is a silently unexpected addition to their group, Zoe takes a more personal interest while Jimmy’s left to wonder the history between “that slut” Lola and “that sociopath” Gary. Johnny doesn’t take too kindly to Zoe flirting with “his girl”, but Zoe doesn’t take shit from anyone and informs him that Lola ‘might like hanging out with him more if he stopped referring to her as a thing he owned.’

That had been a funny fight.

Back when he was first wrangling control, Lola would have loved it, Helen of Troy that she is. It brings the mood up a little bit, but Gary’s presence looms over them all too heavy to enjoy it like they used to.

Mandy and Pinky posse up at his side - never fond of the fighting to begin with - and bring their cliques with them. The preps glare at the greasers, trying to spark something back into their old rivalry, wounds raw from the complete mayhem the school had been in. The jocks bark threats at anyone on their own, but they’re confused and scared, and the charred image of the gym still sits within their mind. Juri is silent for once, no comments to make towards Jimmy’s smaller stature and Kirby is distant. There are still burns on him from where the fire had reached him while he was pinned. Mandy is a steadfast supporter, and the leader of the one thing all the girls in school can agree on; Jimmy is the king.

The cliques soon follow.

Russell has always been strong in his support, the only clique leader not to waver in the end under Gary’s influence. His underlings might have fallen, but in the end Russell knew where he needed to be. With Russell behind him, the prefects are more than willing to return the slingshot they confiscated.

Slowly, things come back into themselves, classes start back up again, the hierarchy re-establishes itself, and it’s not long afterwards until the bullies are spray-painting the school walls, and anyone and everyone is teasing the nerds.

When he had first been granted the title of “king of the school” he was ignorant, self-inflated and worse. He hadn’t learned anything. This time around, Jimmy goes about it the right way.

After the last classes of the week in everyone’s first week back in school following the incident, Jimmy passes the reins off to Petey, leaves him and Zoe with a firm grip on the throne and the iron will to rule it in the face of doubt.

And heads down to the hole.

His footsteps echo around him as he walks, rats scurrying nearby. Nothing had changed, empty, hollow, wrong. There’s no Gary this time, no laughing calls of  _ “hurry up, moron” _ to speed him along - even in the face of live wiring.

Water trickles by under the grates at his feet, and it smells  _ abysmal _ . His heart starts to speed up, hands balling into fists. He hates it down here.

The hole is still there, it’s not like it could move. But it’s real, and so everything that happened here was too.

Russell’s breath, too hot and too loud behind him; real. The water sinking into his clothes when he ended up on the ground; real. The horrible, ripping sound of his shirt when Russell had grabbed him  _ (his heart jumps into his throat, dizzy all of a sudden) _ ; real.

He can still feel it if he thinks hard enough, his vest riding up and his shirt ripping, revealing his binder to crowds of bloodthirsty teenagers.

He wishes he had seen Gary’s face, but he had to act quickly. Binder revealed,  _ ‘he acted like a boy’, ‘why’s he in the boys dorms?’ _ and the view shifted to  _ wrong _ . His knuckles bled and he may have broken something, fighting like an animal as he pounded Russell into the concrete. The view wavered and he snarled, arms outstretched, yelling  _ “WHAT?” _ at anyone bold - or stupid - enough to make eye contact. The view righted itself, and months later, he had never heard it brought up again.

Gary won that round, but at what cost.

Jimmy shuddered out a breath,  looking down at his shoes and away from the overwhelming dip of the hole. It still hurts, deep down, betrayal without reason is always hard to process. He steps back, slowly backing away from the hole until he was halfway through the tunnel, not tearing his eyes off until he stumbled backwards, foot catching on the stairs up to the heater. The hole isn’t going to chase him, but the memories might.

He’s sure there’s a word for how he feels, Ms. Philips would know it, the nurse would know it, Mr. Galloway would  _ definitely _ know it. English had always been his worst subject, so instead of talking, finding someone that would listen to get whatever was inside of him  _ out _ , he pulls up a chair. The heater is bright and hot, flickering embers and color that Ms. Philips would definitely have him paint - something he might actually paint for the next art class - and he takes comfort in it. So he sits on one of the inexpensive wooden fold chairs, the ones that break if u sneeze on them, and stares into the fire.

Jimmy still doesn’t know why Gary threw him into the doghouse. He’s fairly certain now that he never will, but what Gary said on the roof does key him in on some things. He can still see his face, illuminated by the storm, wide-eyed and manic - fearful. He was thin, Jimmy had jostled him around on more than once occasion, but he hadn’t been eating. He was shaking, cornered, and everything was falling apart around him.

Yeah, Jimmy’s been there.

He talked about it like it was some grand scheme, to play him, to play Petey, to play them  _ all. _ Yet, everything he described was off, slightly wrong and jaded through layer upon layer of paranoia and fear. The chase made no sense, everything he said made no sense. Gary was smarter, why did he lead him to a roof to gloat? Had he planned that at all? Everything, he said, was part of some manipulation. He called him a puppet (but dumber), called him every name in the book he could get away with, talked about it like Jimmy had been plotting some grand scheme behind his back.

Jimmy just wanted to graduate.

Was it all like that then? The nights they spent talking, the way all 3 of them - him, Gary, and Petey - had ended up in his room. Running after Gary to make him eat, talking him down from the ledges of his mania at 4 am. Halloween, (Gary got a costume for him!) and every other scrambled memory ranging from watching t.v. to just fucking around. All of that was just part of his plan?

His head hurts, it doesn’t sound right, why put in all that effort? What was the point - to make him care?

Well it worked, it fucking worked.

His mind is reeling with the fire, his eyes chasing flashes of white -  _ like lightning _ \- burning -  _ like mania _ . Was it his fault?

If he had noticed Gary wasn’t taking his meds sooner, if he had paid more attention to him instead of other things. He can’t even remember now, what it was that he thought was more important than the one person that needed his help more than he needed anything else.

Gary was so tired, so scared, and so alone. Jimmy tackled him off a roof.

Jimmy had always been a waiter.

_ “Wait.” His mother told him, smiling at him even though her lip was split and bleeding, gently covering Jimmy’s smaller handers with her own, childish fingers still poised to press the final “1” for 911. _

_ “Wait.” Jimmy told himself, fingers clasping at the edge of his skirt and biting his lip through introductions to class with all the wrong everything. _

_ “Jamie sweetie,” His mother, smiling through tears, soft with her child even at her sharpest, gently pulling him away from the scent of food they couldn’t afford. “Just wait until tomorrow, okay?” _

_ “Wait.” The doctors tell him when he asks about his mom, wondering when they were going to let her into his hospital room. _

_ “Why don’t we wait until your mom can come in?” They tell him again, hours later, when he asks why they won’t let him look in a mirror. _

_ “Wait until tonight,” His mother whispers to him, rubbing tears from his eyes and pulling off her engagement ring. No matter how much money a man had, if he couldn’t accept her daugh-- son, then they weren’t worth anything. “We’ll be gone before he knows it.” _

_ He crashes through school after school, “wait”, “think before you do something”, “hold on just one minute”, echoing after him. _

_ Wait, his brain screams, hands balling into fists, unable to calm the vibrant explosion of rage that follows Gary calling his mom a whore. _

Why didn’t he wait?

The janitor finds him hours later, still staring into the fire with dry eyes and nursing a luke-warm soda. He doesn’t make him leave, and Jimmy doesn’t offer to.

After time, things start to genuinely improve again, though the charred remains of the gym the school does  _ not _ have enough money to fix dampens the mood considerably, it’s only a problem for Jimmy when he has gym class. The new teacher had moved it to the football field until further notice. He doesn’t have an opinion on the new teacher, but the jocks like her and no girl has complained about sexual-harassment, so his responsibility as the king ends there.

He hasn’t seen anyone go into Gary’s room, no prefect, teacher, adult or otherwise. He hasn’t heard anything of his guardians, hasn’t heard anything of Gary at all really, and he’s fine with that. It’s only at night, when he’s alone, that the guilt really bites him.

Petey ends up in his room more often than not, appearing dead-eyed and tired before collapsing into Jimmy’s embrace. It’s wrong having Petey in his claimed spot on Jimmy’s bed without Gary on Jimmy’s right to fight them for blankets. It’s wrong just being the two of them.

The universe hates him, it’s the only way for half of the shit that’s happened to him to make any sense, so when Petey comes to him misty-eyed, too set in his concern to see anything but the most righteous path, gasping  _ “they put Gary in Happy Volts” _ . He’s really not surprised.

He’s been in there a few times, getting Mr. Galloway and Johnny. He remembers screaming, bleak, definitely not up to health codes, and an overlying weight of death. Jimmy tries to picture Gary in there, in a straight-jacket, numbed out of his mind and face blank. Gary doesn’t look right when he’s not grinning, doesn’t look right without something malicious in the air around him. He doesn’t fit in Happy Volts.

“Goddamn it.” Jimmy spits, grabbing Petey by the arm and dragging him off towards the back path by the Observatory.

They get denied entry, predictably, but not by the orderlies this time. Petey using all of his charm is not something anybody can deny, anybody but Gary. Jimmy doesn’t go in, lingering outside the gate and watching. His failure put Gary here, he has no right to see him. Petey comes out worse for wear without even  _ seeing _ Gary. If he’s conscious enough to snap then he’s probably fine.

His actions on the roof tell Jimmy that Gary is anything  _ but _ fine.

They come back again religiously, always with Jimmy waiting outside while Petey slowly cracks his way back into Gary’s defenses. One day Petey doesn’t come out until visiting hours are over, and when he does, he looks the way Jimmy felt in front of the heater in the basement. He purses his lips but says nothing, instead guiding Petey back through a path they had trekked tens of times by now. He doesn’t even pretend to send Petey off to his own room, pulling him into his and letting the smaller teen break apart as needed.

Jimmy can’t forget how small he was, how thin. It had taken no effort to tackle him off the roof, to punch him senseless, it was like taking candy from a baby. Or, beating the shit out of a mentally ill teenager acting out in the worst way possible as an indirect cry for help. So, Jimmy does what Jimmy does best: break the rules.

It’s a night Petey isn’t in yet, and all he leaves is a “ _ be back soon _ ” note before changing into the orderly uniform he had laying around and heading into Old Bullworth Vale.

Technically, the sit-down portion of Burgers isn’t open this late, but Jimmy has ties with people everywhere following numerous errands. You don’t simply ask a teenager to put on a fry hat and expect money to bring back his popularity back to life. Social suicide and teenage embarrassment lives forever. It makes him angry that he still knows Gary’s excessive, over the top burger order off the top of his head. Everything with Gary is an ordeal, even when you’re trying to help him. Asshole both of them may be, by god Jimmy is going to help him.

He bikes over to Happy Volts, nodding hello to underpaid, overworked asylum orderlies that are simply too tired to care about whether he acquired the uniform legitimately or not. It doesn’t take much digging to find Gary’s block and number, then the only thing between him and Gary is the bundle of nerves in his throat threatening to spill out.

An orderly walks by, holding a tray of  _ slop _ that might have passed for a meal  _ in hell _ and that makes his decision for him.

When he gets to the cell, he hears nothing, and that’s the worst part. Even when he’s ‘quiet’ Gary is  _ never _ quiet. He’s always bouncing, muttering, humming, sometimes his volume just lowers. Dead silence, in a place that echoes behind him of screaming. Gary’s fucked up, but this isn’t what he needs. The door heaves open and it looks like it’s all Gary can do to turn his head to look. His face is hollow, sunken, and the manic expressions that stretch it are gone, leaving an empty shell of the sociopath he used to call ‘friend’. Something slurs, out of him, and when he makes eye-contact with Jimmy and processes ‘ _ yes, that’s really really him.’ _ His face twists into an expression of confusion, wanting to laugh, and wanting to cry in one big picture. Jimmy doesn’t let him speak, letting him talk right now will only end terribly. He pulls the burger out of the bag, unwraps it, grabs Gary’s wrists - he could break them if he gripped too hard, he can’t eat the food here the texture is wrong - and turns his hands palms up so he can drop a burger in them.

Any retort dies on Gary’s tongue as he stops, looking down at the food in his hands like he’s not quite sure it’s actually there. His mouth opens a few times, closing with no sound escaping before he finally looks up. Jimmy really is there.  _ Is that what he does here for fun, _ Jimmy wonders,  _ sits and is taunted by a fake version of me? _

Jimmy clears his throat, bundling all the trash up in his hands so the other orderlies don’t see it.

“Don’t die, asshole.”

Gary doesn’t say a word, blinking slowly at him even as Jimmy turns and leaves, shutting the door behind him and leaving the facility, depositing the trash only once he was safe back in his room on school grounds, and changed into his sleepwear.

Petey doesn’t join him that night.

 

They’re in the cafeteria, milling around between classes when it happens. Jimmy sinks his teeth into an apple, and he, along with the rest of the cafeteria, falls silent when the speaker crackles to life.

_ “Attention students, there will be a new student joining us for classes-” _ And Jimmy zones out.

He had been the last student for a while, and although the target of ‘ _ new’  _ had been off him for months, he still feels the flash of concern. If he’s the king, that makes it his duty to greet the new kid too. They don’t tell them any more, just that there’s a new kid and they’ll be coming soon. He looks towards Petey, and Petey smiles back. Maybe this will be the final thing to get everyone's minds off of Gary.

Jimmy doesn’t pace, when he needs to move he fights, but there’s no one to fight here except the new kid, and they’re still waiting on him. 

“I wonder what he’ll be like?” Petey is a buzz of nervous energy, roaming from Jimmy’s side before coming right back, never stepping too far away.

“Who knows.” Jimmy replies, running his gaze along old wallpaper to rest on the doors.

Petey is still roaming, and Jimmy notices when he falters in his step all of a sudden. Aged, haunted, and young. His laugh is tired when it finally comes out, running his fingers through his hair and inching closer to Jimmy’s side.

“Y’know, it’s kinda funny.”

“Funny how?”

“This is just like when you first showed up.”

Jimmy’s never heard this story before, weight shifting on his feet to look at him better.

Petey hesitates, like saying his name will bring him back, but the school counselors said it was good to talk about, not that Jimmy ever went to those meetings.

“Gary had been out here all morning, up earlier than he usually was - or, well, out and about earlier than normal.” Gary doesn’t sleep, they both know that.

“Why?”

Petey smiled, nervous and shrugging. “Waiting for you to get here.”

He sits content with that revelation, picking it apart in silence in his mind. Jimmy wishes he had been paying more attention when he first walked in these doors. He had been too focused on anger, should have been more focused on the boy mid-pace that just about stumbled over himself trying to seem cool in an introduction. “ _ Friend _ ” Gary had called him, threatening and vicious and so determined. Was that manipulation too?

The new kid doesn’t show and eventually Petey and Jimmy migrate to Jimmy’s room, it’s late and cold, the curfew went into effect hours ago and Petey smiles all nervous when he asks if Jimmy’s hungry too. Jimmy, rolling his eyes at the scatterbrained thoughts of his friend, gets dressed anyways. Burgers might still be open, and the owner would let him in a few minutes late if he got there quick enough. He bundles up to face the fall cold and steps out of the dorm, already planning his route around the prefects when he looks up.

And sees him.

Him being Gary Smith, thin, tired, eyes sunken and hollow, face and ears red from the biting wind and standing in front of the boys dorm at 1:36 am in uniform. Gary’s head jerks up, eyes flashing a panicked fear before his mask falls in place, starring Jimmy in the eyes. Jimmy blinks, once, twice, and thrice, trying to convince himself that Gary  _ wasn’t _ here standing outside the boys dorm. But he is, no wonder the new kid never showed up; he was too busy hiding.

The wind cuts through him and Gary shakes despite their stand-off, some hellish part buried deep inside him wants to move closer, wants to wrap his jacket around Gary and pull him in. He’s on the edge of  _ doing _ it if just to make Gary’s teeth stop  _ chattering _ when Gary steels himself, snarls  _ “James” _ and storms past him into the dorm.

Jimmy jerks away from him as he passes like the very presence of Gary is enough to scorch him, it might be. He’s not sure. Jimmy, grinding his teeth together, storms off into the cold.

He shows up hours later, dead on his feet and without food. His knuckles are bloody and shaking in the cold, some poor wall somewhere bearing the force of his rage. Petey is half asleep in Jimmy’s room but he  jerks to life when Jimmy comes back in.

“Where have you been?” He hisses, concerned and beckoning him, he scouts out the first-aid kit he’s been obligated to keep on hand since Jimmy crashed into his life, absolutely refusing medical attention, and cleans him up.

“It’s Gary.” Jimmy says, finally, looking up to meet Petey’s wide, confused eyes. “The new kid is Gary.”

_ “What?  _ Are you-- you’re sure?”

“I fucking,” Jimmy jerks away, he shouldn’t take his anger out on Petey. All the more reason for him to get away. “I saw him he’s probably back in his fucking room!”

Petey is processing it, eyes wild and looking from Jimmy to just past his head in the direction of where Gary’s room used to be - is?

“How could he get back in?” The fight leaves Petey quicker than it does Jimmy, but Jimmy’s been caught in it for hours now.

“I don’t know.” He sighs, deflating, arms limp at his sides. “He probably paid his way in, god knows Crabble-dick can’t resist money.”

Petey purses his lips, wringing his hands and stands up, beckoning Jimmy out of his binder and into bed with promises to ask about it tomorrow.

Petey confirms it tomorrow and news spreads through the school like wildfire, Gary Smith is re-enrolled and back at school. All the clique leaders swarm Jimmy together, torn between confused and angry and  _ downright murderous _ .

“They let that fuckin’ sociopath back in?” Johnny yells, Peanut and Vance at his side, both attempting to calm him down but not really in it.

“It’s not like Jimmy had a choice.” Petey reasons, playing the voice of reason.

“His grandparents are rich,” Derby has the good grace to point out, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. 

“New coach says the school’s buyin’ supplies to fix the gym.” Ted adds and that  _ does _ make sense.

“Petey?” Zoe asks, turning her steely gaze to him.

Now it’s Petey’s turn to look thoughtful, biting softly at the knuckle of his index finger. He nods slowly. “I think the gym teacher and Dr. Crabblesnitch have been having more meetings lately. Maybe that…?”

Jimmy’s arms are crossed, shifting his weight and looking up towards Russell. Him and the nerds have been quiet so far. “You got anything to add, big guy?”

Russell blinks, slowly nodding and slamming his fist into his open palm. “Russell will hurt Gary, to keep peace.”

A sick smirk stretches across Jimmy’s face, the  _ ‘hole’ _ incident burning fresh in his mind once again. “Not yet big guy, not yet.”

Gary makes himself scarce for the most part, the most Jimmy sees of him is in classes, he’s gone after that. There’s still a burning hatred in him, for the betrayal, for Gary’s actions, but the more he sees of him the more concerned he gets. He still doesn’t know what to make of Gary’s manic speech on the roof, but he knows that no teenage boy should be as skinny as Gary is now. He’s pale and clammy and too god damn  _ tiny  _ for the upcoming winter. Petey is more outwards with his concern, and Jimmy sees him staring at Gary  _ often _ . Occasionally, the two exchange glances.

_ “Should I?” _ Petey wonders.

Jimmy shakes his head.  _ “Not yet.” _

The cliques are not nice to him, but even they don’t know how to respond to Gary. The Gary from the past was louder, manic, scheming and grinning even at the worst of times. This Gary is quiet, blank, and skinny enough to snap at a harsh breeze.

Sometimes, Jimmy sees him against a wall, leaning against it and shaking, struggling to breathe. It’s moments like that where he remembers that making sure Gary was healthy used to be  _ his _ job, that make him want to go back most. Gary fell apart without them, and even after all the shit that Gary did, it hurts to watch him fall.

_ “Please.” _ Petey begs with his eyes, looking up at Jimmy from his side. Gary’s absent from biology, his  _ favorite _ class.

Jimmy, face apprehensive, nods.

Petey reaches out to Gary first, slowly pushing back into his life. Gary tells him to fuck off, not in those exact words (most of the time) but gets the feeling across regardless. Petey, confident and vicious, puts his foot down and drags Gary -  _ physically drags Gary, someone 5 inches taller than him _ \- to the nurse’s office after school.

Gary is even more scarce after that but Petey still manages to hunt him down, he’s not getting away from Petey’s fierce mother hen gaze this time.

“I thought you said Gary always treated him like shit.” Zoe says one day, watching Petey force feed Gary some of his lunch. Gary looks like he’d rather be anywhere  _ but _ sitting in the hallway behind the stairs next to the cafeteria.

“He does.” Jimmy replies, even from this far away he can see Gary’s hands shaking.

Perspective altering events shouldn’t happen at 4 in the morning, but the three of them have never done anything the right way. Jimmy showers early in the morning, waking up at fuck’o’cock every two days to scramble upstairs to the bathroom before any of the other  _ cis _ inhabitants of the dorms were awake. It’s a routine he’d repeated countless times, he’d seen the occasional other person when doing it, in a dorm like this that was guaranteed, but nothing could prepare him for this.

His feet are soft on the carpet, just stepping onto the square with the bullworth crest when a door opened; more specifically,  _ Gary’s _ door, but that couldn’t be Gary.

It’s dark, the only light in the hallway from the t.v. in the common room, casting a faint glow. The mystery person stopped to lock the door, a uniquely Gary trait, but the shadow is all wrong. Mystery person turns, back to Jimmy and that’s when Jimmy  _ sees _ it, and he jolted back a step in response, footsteps thudding just loud enough for the other person to hear.

It’s hard to have a stare off when u can’t see the other, between the changing light of the television and his already poor night-vision, it takes a  _ long _ time to register that he is, in fact, staring down Gary.

Gary who was in  _ his _ hoodie.

Gary’s face just about highlighted how Jimmy felt currently, staring at the grey bullworth hoodie - worn so many times the logo was faded - he didn’t even remember losing. It had been some time since he had seen that thing, actually, sometime last winter before he got into it with the greasers. There are hundreds of hoodies like that on campus, but Jimmy  _ knows _ that one is his, purely because of the gaping hole over the right elbow.

It happened during the last one of the Bullworth Town races, his bike had skid out from under him on the dirt road and the sleeve had snagged, ripping a hole up in the shoulder. He hadn’t realized until the race was over, having been too caught in getting back on his bike to get going again. He had just thrown it  _ somewhere _ in his room, hadn’t seen it since, and now here Gary was wearing it.

They stare each other down, silence droning on awkwardly before Gary cleared his throat and bit. “It’s not yours.” before turning and practically running upstairs towards the bathroom.

Jimmy went back to his room, planning to camp out there for the next half hour, completely confused.

He doesn’t mention it to Petey or Zoe, just keeps his eye on what

It’s late when  _ something  _ happens. Jimmy has been in Bullworth Town at the comic store, held up in a meeting with the nerds. The nerds were good sources of information but they talked  _ a lot _ and trailed off. If a nerd was going to tell you a story, you had to be prepared for 7 different conversations and 19 other mini-stories thrown in before they got to the  _ actual _ point. Earnest had good concerns, and Melvin (his un-official second) had good info. It wasn’t  _ bad  _ meeting with the nerds, but it took forever. Predictably, Jimmy got out late, snow had started falling and his skateboard wouldn’t be able to plow through the rapidly rising snow on the ground.

_ “Why don’t you use a bike?” _ Everyone in the entire school asked.

_ “Because.” _ Jimmy replied stubbornly, checking the time. The last bus went through Bullworth Town at 7:30 to check for kids, which was only 23 minutes from now. He could wait.

He takes his time walking to the stop stretching out and pulling his jacket tighter around himself. It may be cold out, but Jimmy won’t deny the snowflakes mingling with the neon lights of stores was kind of pretty.

He enjoys the few minutes he has to himself, staring up towards the sky. He puts his skateboard down after a while, leaning it against the bus stop pole and shoving his hands in his pockets. Petey was always nagging him about gloves, he might actually need to listen to him.

He doesn’t pay attention to the other kid that comes up to the bus stop, is too busy in his thoughts until he notices the shaking. Jimmy sighs, already wondering what kind of dumbass would be out in weather like this with practically  _ nothing _ on--

Gary. Gary is the dumbass. The dumbass who is very pointedly looking anywhere but him. Jimmy, once again, does not know what to do about that. He knows Gary has to be freezing though, if he couldn’t tell that just by how he looked. He had avoided Jimmy at every possible opportunity, their only verbal interaction being when they had met outside the dorm a month or so ago. If Gary  _ wasn’t _ so weak and cold, he might have just walked back to school, but he is, and so he’s here.

When he looks at Gary, Gary looks back for one bitter,  _ bitter _ moment before he jerks away, hunching further in on himself. It’s absolutely pitiful the way Gary’s rubbing at his arms and shaking, teeth chattering and red faced. Jimmy’s an asshole, he’ll be the first to tell you that, but he’s not heartless either. His head tilts back, staring up at the sky again and already he mourns the loss of warmth.

His sigh, quiet, still makes Gary twitchy, like he’s expecting Jimmy to just let loose and punch him at any given moment. Jimmy wants to, he  _ really _ wants to. It’s so hard telling what he wants anymore, but he knows he wants this.

_ ‘Okay.’ _ He decides,  _ ‘Fine.’ _ And starts shrugging his jacket off.

Gary looks at him suspiciously, trying to make it seem like he wasn’t watching and failing miserably. The jacket comes off and it’s just Jimmy in long sleeves against the winter chill. Gary has no warning before suddenly Jimmy’s heavy jacket is draped over his shoulders and so damn  _ warm _ .

The look Jimmy gets in response breaks and mends him all at once, softer than someone like Gary has any right to be and confused.

_ ‘I hurt you so badly, and you do this?’ _

Jimmy doesn’t respond to the unasked question in his eyes, instead looks forward and ignores the cold, waiting resolutely for the bus. He does see Gary bundle himself in his jacket out of the corner of his eyes, pulling the front closed and hitching the hood up over his own head.

Minutes tick on and slowly, Gary stops shivering. Jimmy’s cold now, but that’s fine, he has enough muscle on him to hold his body heat. Gary looks  _ like _ the pole for the bus stop. An eternity passes before the bus finally shows and Jimmy pushes past Gary, grabbing his skateboard and getting on, plopping himself down somewhere in the middle. Gary sits on the opposite side of the bus, a row or two behind him. It takes all of Jimmy’s willpower not to look back at him.

He doesn’t tell Petey or Zoe what happened, instead brushing off their concern when he comes back sans a jacket.

“What are you doing in the boys dorm?” Jimmy asks, looking at Zoe.

“You think I’m walking back to the girls dorm when it’s that fucking cold out?” Zoe huffs, flashing a smirk before attempting to get Jimmy to sleep on the floor, reasoning that the  _ ‘lady’ _ should have the bed.

“If you can find a lady in here, let me know.”

“Wow! Fuck you too, Jimmy!”

A week or so later, Jimmy’s in his room. An explosion had gone off in the chemistry lab the day prior, leaving him without chem class for the day. He’s sitting at the edge of his bed, eyes glancing from the trophies scattered about - reminders of his victories - when the door to his room creaks open. His head jerks to the side and instead of someone,  _ anyone _ who it could have been, Gary is standing in front of him. He looks surprised and slightly panicked, Jimmy was normally in class by now,  _ why the fuck is Gary sneaking into his room. _

Gary, already caught, steps inside, clearing his throat before holding out Jimmy’s jacket, the one he had given up a week ago.

“Here.”

Jimmy looks at the jacket, blinking a few times. He honestly hadn’t expected Gary to bring it back, let alone try to  _ sneak _ it into his room to avoid facing him.

Jimmy clears his throat awkwardly.

“You can uh- you can keep it.”

Gary, also awkwardly, slowly pulls it back closer to him.

“Oh.”

They stare at each other for a few more minutes, neither knowing what to say or  _ do _ before Gary shakes his head, stands up straight, turns on his heel, and promptly flees the scene. Gary is still just as confusing as before, and Jimmy is so, so very tired.

Spring comes in a mess of warm breezes and occasional run ins with Gary. Jimmy, once Gary starts putting on weight and looks less like an actual twig, finds it within himself to be bitter and hate him again. It’s a harder fire to fuel, but it burns nonetheless.

Petey, an angel from above, deserving of far better things than Bullworth and it’s inhabitants, comes to him with his lips set in a hard line and already Jimmy knows he’s going to be agreeing to whatever Petey wants.

“I want you to try getting along with Gary.” A tall order.

Petey doesn’t know about their interactions the previous winter, doesn’t know that Gary presumably still holds Jimmy’s jacket within his room. He doesn’t know that deep down, Jimmy is aching for the way they used to be.

“I know you don’t trust him, I’m not asking you too,”

That’s true, Jimmy still doesn’t trust him completely. For all he knows, Gary’s submission could be an act, a way to prey on sympathy.

“But he’s taking his meds,”

_ That _ is a good sign, and certainly behavior the king can reward.

“And he needs us.”

Gary shivering in the winter, cold and alone, too skinny to survive.

Petey’s eyes give and the softness returns, he’s still firm, and he’s definitely learned a thing or two from Gary. His innocent doe-eyes can get him whatever he wants if he uses them right.

“I need us.”

Jimmy swallows, hard.

“Alright.”

“I know you--” Petey blinks. “Alr-Alright?”

Jimmy nods and Petey’s body language slowly relaxes, he nods slowly and echoes back “alright” a surprised tone of finality to his voice.


End file.
